How to write good User Stories in Agile
Summary
TLDRThis video tutorial guides viewers on crafting effective user stories in Agile development, emphasizing the importance of acceptance criteria. It illustrates how to structure user stories for clarity and value delivery, using examples like a Spotify podcast feature. The video also introduces the INVEST acronym to evaluate user stories for independence, negotiability, value, estimability, small size, and testability, ensuring they are well-defined and actionable.
Takeaways
- 📝 **User Stories in Agile**: Agile teams use user stories to break down product features and requirements into manageable pieces of functionality.
- 🎯 **User Perspective**: Each user story should describe the desired functionality from the user's point of view, ensuring it delivers value.
- 📎 **Brief and Simple**: User stories should be brief enough to fit on an index card and written in a simple way that's understandable by everyone.
- 👤 **User Role Identification**: The user story format helps identify the user role or persona, which is crucial for understanding user needs.
- 🔍 **Action and Value**: A good user story outlines the user's action and the value it provides, answering the 'why' behind the functionality.
- 📋 **Acceptance Criteria**: Acceptance criteria define the conditions that must be met for the user story to be considered complete.
- 🔄 **Given-When-Then Format**: The 'Given-When-Then' format is a useful way to write acceptance criteria, outlining context, action, and expected results.
- 🔍 **Verification with INVEST**: Use the INVEST acronym to verify the quality of user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable.
- 🏋️♂️ **Independence**: Good user stories are independent and can be developed or released without depending on other stories.
- 🤝 **Negotiable**: While the user's goal is fixed, the approach to achieving it should be open to discussion and negotiation.
- 💰 **Value Addition**: Each user story should enhance the product's value, making it more beneficial to the end user.
- 📏 **Estimatable**: The story should provide enough detail for the team to estimate the effort required and plan accordingly.
- 🔎 **Small Scope**: Keeping user stories small makes them easier to estimate, plan, and test within an iteration or sprint.
- 🧪 **Testable**: A user story should be testable, with clear acceptance criteria that allow for a binary pass or fail outcome.
Q & A
What are user stories in agile development?
-User stories in agile development are brief, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the end-user or customer of the system. They typically cover a small piece of functionality and deliver value on their own.
Why should user stories be written on an index card?
-User stories should be brief enough to be written on an index card to ensure they are concise and focused on the essential details, making them easy to understand and manage.
What is the typical format for writing a user story?
-The typical format for a user story is: 'As a [role], I want [feature] so that [benefit].' This format helps to clearly define the user role, the action they want to take, and the value they will gain.
What is the purpose of acceptance criteria in user stories?
-Acceptance criteria define the conditions that must be met for the user story to be considered complete. They provide clear guidelines for the development team and help ensure that the functionality meets the user's needs.
Can you provide an example of acceptance criteria using the 'given when then' format?
-An example using the 'given when then' format could be: 'Given I am on the Spotify app, when I click the favorite icon next to a podcast, then the podcast should be saved and appear in my favorites list.'
Why is it important for user stories to be independent?
-User stories should be independent so they can be developed in any order, without being coupled with other stories. This allows for flexibility in the development process and can facilitate quicker releases.
What does it mean for a user story to be negotiable?
-Negotiable means that while the end goal of the user story is clear, the methods or solutions to achieve that goal can be discussed and adapted by the development team to best fit the project's needs.
How can you determine if a user story is valuable?
-A user story is valuable if its delivery makes the product more useful or beneficial to the end-user. It should provide a clear benefit that aligns with the user's needs or business objectives.
What does 'estimatable' mean in the context of user stories?
-Estimatable refers to the ability for the development team to assess the size and complexity of a user story, allowing them to plan and commit to the work required to complete it.
Why should user stories be small?
-User stories should be small enough to be completed within an iteration or sprint. This makes them easier to estimate, test, and manage, leading to more efficient development cycles.
How can you ensure that a user story is testable?
-A user story is testable if it has clear acceptance criteria that can be evaluated in a binary manner (pass or fail). This ensures that there is a definitive way to verify whether the story's requirements have been met.
What is the acronym INVEST and how does it relate to writing good user stories?
-INVEST is a mnemonic for the qualities of a good user story: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable. It serves as a checklist to ensure that user stories are well-crafted and effective for agile development.
Outlines
📝 Writing Good User Stories in Agile
This video script introduces the process of writing effective user stories in the context of agile development. User stories are small, independent units of work that represent a feature from a user's perspective. They are brief, written in simple language, and focus on delivering value without including technical details. The script provides an example of a user story for a Spotify podcast listener who wants to save podcasts as favorites. It also explains the importance of acceptance criteria, which are conditions that must be met for the story to be considered complete, using a 'given-when-then' format. The script emphasizes the simplicity of user stories and acceptance criteria, but acknowledges the practice required to write them effectively.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Agile
💡User Stories
💡Acceptance Criteria
💡INVEST Acronym
💡Given-When-Then
💡Independent
💡Negotiable
💡Valuable
💡Estimatable
💡Small
💡Testable
Highlights
Introduction to writing good user stories in agile with acceptance criteria.
Agile teams break down product features into user stories for clarity and value delivery.
User stories should be brief and understandable by everyone without technical jargon.
Example of a user story: Spotify podcast listener wants to save podcasts as favorites.
User story format answers who, what, and why, providing context and value.
Acceptance criteria define when a user story is complete, using formats like 'given when then'.
Example of acceptance criteria for saving podcasts as favorites on Spotify.
Acceptance criteria include context, action, and expected results.
The importance of practice in writing user stories and acceptance criteria.
Another example user story: LinkedIn user wants to search for remote-only jobs.
Acceptance criteria for the LinkedIn remote job search feature.
How to verify a good user story using the INVEST acronym.
INVEST stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable.
Explanation of 'Independent' in the INVEST criteria for user stories.
The 'Negotiable' aspect allows flexibility in achieving user story goals.
User stories should add 'Value' to the product.
The 'Estimatable' criterion ensures the team can size and plan the work.
'Small' user stories are easier to estimate and test.
User stories must be 'Testable' with clear pass or fail outcomes.
Conclusion of the video with a summary of how to write good user stories in agile.
Call to action for viewers to subscribe for more content.
Transcripts
[Music]
in this video we will cover how to write
good user stories in agile with
acceptance criteria
at the end of this video we will show
you how to verify if you wrote a good
user story so stick with us until the
end when a product is created the agile
teams typically break down their product
features and requirements into user
stories
user story describes the desired
functionality from the perspective of
the user
each user story should cover a small
chunk of functionality and deliver value
on its own
the user story description should be
brief enough that it can be written on
an index card it needs to be written in
a simple way so it can be understood by
everyone without including the solution
or heavy technical information
let's look at an example
as a spotify podcast listener i want to
save podcasts as my favorites so that i
can create my own custom list of
favorite podcasts this user story format
is useful because it answers who the
user role or persona is in our example
is the spotify podcast listener it shows
what the action of the user is to save
podcasts as favorites and it highlights
the value and answers the why
so that i can create my own custom list
of favorite podcasts
after we write our usual story we need
to start thinking about the criteria
that informs us and the team when the
user story is complete this is called
the acceptance criteria acceptance
criteria can be written in multiple
formats one of the formats that can be
used for acceptance criteria is the
given when then format let's use our
user story as an example
given the spotify app displays podcasts
when i click the favorite icon that is
displayed by each individual podcast
then the podcast gets saved and is
displayed in my favor list
as you notice
given shows context or precondition
when shows the action that is carried
out and then displays the observable
outcome and expected results
as you can see user stories with
acceptance criteria are both simple
concepts but it does take practice to
get used to actually writing them let's
try one more example
as a linkedin user i want to search for
jobs that are remote only so i can apply
to jobs that allows me to work from
anywhere the acceptance criteria can be
something like this
given i am under the job tab in linkedin
when i search for jobs and i filter by
remote only
then remote only jobs are displayed and
i can apply for them
so we wrote our user story and including
acceptance criteria but how can we
double check ourselves to make sure we
wrote an overall good and effective user
story this is done with the help of the
acronym invest
invest means independent negotiable
valuable estimatable small and testable
let's take a look at independent
a story that is independent is not
coupled with any other story it can be
developed in any order and can be
released on its own
negotiable means while the end goal may
be clearly described for the user story
the methods by which their goal is
achieved should be negotiable
valuable means every story that's
delivered should make your product more
valuable
estimatable the user story has enough
information for the team to size it so
they can probably plan and commit to
their work
small means that user stories should be
done within the iteration or sprint
user stories are easier to estimate and
test when they're smaller
testable means stories should be
testable in a binary way that means they
either pass or fail their associate
tests this means the user story has a
good acceptance criteria
with that we conclude this video on how
to write good user stories in agile
thank you for watching and please
subscribe to our channel for more
content
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